Wizard World kicked off its first Cleveland based Comic Con this weekend with an impressive “thousands of fans” attending, according to Wizard World PR. Lou Ferrigno and Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson cut the ribbon Friday evening to open the doors for the inaugural con. The event included celebrity guests (mostly from the West Coast) commenting on the record cold weather Cleveland was experiencing, but all in good fun. Notable attendees included Bruce Campbell, Joey Lauren Adams, William Shatner, Drea De Mateo, and Karen Gillan among others.

Wizard World has already announced dates for next year’s Cleveland Comic Con, which will be held Feb. 26-28, 2016.

Stay tuned for this week’s Robot Underpants show here on Geek News Central for audio clips from some of the panels.

When I heard this show was coming, I kind of groaned. The description about “Gotham” was that it’s to take place before Batman, Joker, and all the cool bad guys and gadgets. It’s “Batman Babies.” It follows young Jim Gordon and the Gotham PD around to solve crimes. Another cop procedural show, just what we need. I have this feeling that there’s some farm outside of LA somewhere, where writers just sit and churn out cop stories, then when Hollywood orders a new cop show, they just change a few names and settings, and we’re good to go. That’s how I felt about “Almost Human” but at least there were good actors, and the effects were pretty.

But I digress.

I’ll go ahead and say “possible spoilers ahead” even though nothing really happened in this first episode. The only real event that happened, is the one everyone knows – Bruce Wayne’s parents get killed. And they stuck to that. Outside of the names of Batman related characters, I’ve got a feeling they aren’t going to stick to the story lines very closely. We’ve already met Oswald Cobblepot, who will become the Penguin, but instead of the usual short, stout character we know, he’s a tall, slender guy with a limp and greasy hair. A different take, I guess. Young Catwoman is so obvious, yet so absent from this episode there’s no point in going into that really. This first one was a set up episode. As most pilots are. We meet young Jim Gordon. We know it’s him, because we hear his name mentioned about 80 bazillion times. We meet his partner Harvey Bullock, and a few other bad guys and gals.

I always give a show three episodes before I make a call on whether or not to continue. So we’ll see where this goes. I’m a big Batman fan, so I’m in for a few more eps. I just don’t know how great it’s going to be when all the fun stuff about Batman (costumed criminals, the Bat-gadgets, and Batman himself) are removed. I really wish the show took place in the 40’s. Like it did in the comics. A 1940’s Gotham PD would be pretty sweet, in my opinion. But it’s not. It’s modern day. So I wonder – Will “Gotham” just sorta leave us with another cop show, but with Batman-related names?

In celebration of reaching over 7 million Likes on Facebook, Marvel comics is offering free digital comics throughout the day today.

New York, NY – July 22nd, 2014– Marvel is excited to announce that it now has reached 7 million+ Likes on the Marvel Facebook page. In order to celebrate this massive social achievement, Marvel is offering all visitors to the Marvel Facebook page exclusive and unlocked first-looks at upcoming Marvel projects and FREE digital comics throughout the day.

Starting at 12PM EST, with new content unlocked every other hour, Marvel Facebook fans and visitors will be the first to see exclusive content and be offered FREE digital comics for a very limited time* to read through the Marvel Comics App (for iPhone ®, iPad ®, iPod Touch ® & Android ™ devices) and the Marvel Digital Comics Shop.

Marvel has been shoveling out tons of announcements lately, and will no doubt have more once San Diego Comic Con starts later this week.